Long talks about commitment to Washington

Long said that while others may think about his commitment in terms of its broader symbolism, he didn’t really see it that way.

“I just felt it was time,” he said. “I just made my own decision.”

Still, it’s hard to ignore that Long is the first commit for UW’s Class of 2013 and comes from a perennially talent-rich school that a year ago sent its two most highly-touted players — offensive tackle Zach Banner (USC) and receiver Cedric Dozier (Cal) — elsewhere.

The losses of the lines of Banner and Dozier had UW looking largely out-of-state last year to bolster its Class of 2012.

Getting Long is an early UW strike at re-establishing recruiting dominance in the state.

The 6-4, 190-pound Long is rated a three-star recruit by Rivals.com and will likely be regarded as the top receiving prospect in the state when rankings are completed. He caught 20 passes for 276 yards and five touchdowns last year for Lakes and had impressed scouts with his size and speed (he was recently clocked in the 200 in 23.6, he said and will also run the 400, 4X100 relay and the 100 this year for Lakes). Long said he plans to visit a few UW spring practices to get a clearer sense of how he will fit into Washington’s offense.

UW was the first school to offer Long last fall, though he said he recently had gotten interest from the likes of UCLA and Cal.

“I just felt like UW was the closest to home and it was somewhere I wanted to go,” he said Tuesday.

Commitments are not binding until letters are signed — the 2013 letter-of-intent day doesn’t arrive until Feb. 6. That leaves a long time for Long to fend off other suitors, and he said he might take at least unofficial visits to other nearby schools such as Oregon and Oregon State just to compare.

Long said he’s like to take a few visits to “compare the chemistry between the coaches and to check out their facilities.”

But he said he doesn’t plan to change a decision he said he made early because UW is “somewhere I really wanted to go.”

An obvious question is how many scholarships UW will have for the Class of 2013. It’s always hard to tell that at such an early date. But unlike the last few years when you could safely just say that the Huskies would likely end up with enough room to sign a full class, regardless of what the numbers looked like early on, it’s hard to determine if that will be the case this year. UW could have as few as 12 or so scholarship seniors this year due to having few players remaining from the Classes of 2008 and 2009, so this might be a year when the Huskies may not be able to sign a full 25.